


This Is Not Your Father's X-Men Comics

by echomoon



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, Gen, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-10 22:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20143003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/echomoon/pseuds/echomoon
Summary: The AU where Mal and company are mutants living in a secret underground science bunker run by their parents.Title taken from 'My Once Upon A Time' from D3 and changed to reflect the content of the fic.





	This Is Not Your Father's X-Men Comics

Malia Drachentochter is 6 years old when her best friend goes missing. Charlotte De Vil, who she often played with in their room in the science lab their mothers worked in, had wandered away during one of the few occasions they were allowed outside of their mothers’ reach, probably in search of some shiny new piece of technology as she often was, and is never seen again. Three days later, Malia’s mother packs her into their tiny car, which contains all of their earthly possessions and more than a little illegal scientific equipment, and drives until they’re very, very, very far away, to a strange underground bunker in the middle of a hot, humid swamp that was far from civilization. She only cries for the first few hours; after that, her mother makes it very clear that that kind of behaviour was in no way permissible.

The bunker is large enough to house a small town’s worth of people, and there were already a few people there, two women and a man and a few children. The adults all gathered together, arguing loudly about something, but Malia was more interested in the children. Two girls, both with strange blue hair - though to be fair, Malia had purple hair, so who was she to say what was strange - one who was staring at her reflection in a dirty hand mirror and the other who was tossing around a clear, wobbly ball; one boy, sitting quietly at the table.

She observes the other children until they’re all led into a side room, half classroom and half science lab. This is what Malia is used to; this is where they would learn and be tested. The boy and the mirror girl are unbothered by the change of scenery; the other girl pouts and whines because the adults made her stop playing the ball and instead sit at a desk.

They learn that this is their life now, the bunker, that they are the first students in a new school for special children like them, the first ones in this new home, community, for those on the run from persecution.

Because the President had declared that all genetically mutated beings were to be rounded up and registered, and it was no longer safe for them to be free. Because if they set foot outside they would be kidnapped and experimented on, like little Charlotte De Vil. Because they were different, and needed to be protected.

This was the only world they would know for the next ten years.

-

Over time, the inhabitants of the bunker began to refer to it as the Isle of the Lost, a home for runaways, vagabonds, criminals whose only crime was existing. The name stuck quickly to the beacon of hope for mutantkind. The bunker had grown in the last ten years, grown from the four children and their parents to a bustling community. The genetic mutations spread throughout humanity has only become so vastly noticeable during Malia’s generation, and most of the gifted were their age or younger, though the inhabitants were a mix of gifted and not, due to how many families had come in the beginning. Lately, the refugee groups had been mainly children on the run from their own families.

Malia had bonded with Jahi, the quiet boy, and Evangeline, the girl with the mirror, fairly quickly. Something had just drawn them together. The other girl, Uma, became a sort of petty rival, especially once her sidekicks Harry and Gil moved to town. Malia thought they fought so much because her mutation allowed her to control fire, while Uma controlled water. The two girls had amassed ‘crews’ on either side of the bunker, to the point that their rivalry had become just a regular part of Isle life. Their parents only cared if it affected their gifts in any way, which was to say, not at all. They were like that about most things; scientists first, parents second. What mattered was documenting this first major generation of mutants, seeing how they grew and evolved. The children were used to it, but being used to it didn't much help with the bitterness.

The largest room of the bunker, which had probably once been a cafeteria before they took over, had been turned into a colorful marketplace; a haphazard array of stalls, shops, and tables. The nonscientific members of the community, which was basically everyone who moved in after the initial wave, had started it to give themselves something to do with their time; the community mainly worked on a bartering system, as government money had little value to the rebels. Thanks to a few mutants with nature related powers, they were able to turn some spare rooms and parts of the outside swamp into a farm, and managed to lure animals to them for meat and eggs and milk on occasion; they became as close to self reliant as they could possibly be - it was a matter of survival.

-

For the kids of Dragon Hall - the ‘affectionate’ nickname for the mutant school, run by Maleficent and the other scientists - their mornings were spent learning to control and strengthen their powers. Many of the children, once they began puberty, began to develop secondary powers, which meant an even longer time in the training labs.

Malia, for example, had had full control of her fire from her mother’s tutelage even before they came to the Isle. But the day she woke up with bloody sheets for the first time was the day she discovered she could lift the entire contents of her room in the air, furniture and everything. A few months later, Evangeline, in addition to her shape shifting, was suddenly able to understand any language she read or heard. Jahi, whose only power before was invisibility, discovered he has super speed while trying to sneak into the kitchens after hours.

In the afternoons, as long as they weren’t fully held up in the training labs, they would either go to the ‘normal’s’ school, or wander around the Isle. Malia’s crew usually chose to do the latter, not seeing the point in holding themselves back to the masses’ pace when they could just self study when they felt like it.

Today, they planned to go outside the Isle’s walls, into the surrounding swamp. Not too far, but they were so rarely allowed outside, and only then if it was for class or for gathering crops. Jahi had overheard Uma and her crew talking about doing it, so obviously Malia’s crew had to do it first.

Malia and Jahi wait together for Evangeline to get out of her lab - her mother always kept her late, insisting on only perfection. They sit at the top of the rafters, high above the rest of the market, a spot they had found shortly after Malia developed her telekinesis. She was, after that initial burst, only able to lift up to a certain weight, but they were all still small enough that she could lift them up, albeit one by one.

Malia leans against Jahi, resting her head on his shoulder. He didn’t shift, as her crew was used to this level of physical contact when they were out of sight. It was the only real comfort they got in this place, full of paranoid adults and parents more interested in the scientific implications of their abilities than showing them affection. She runs her eyes over the crowd near the entrance to the lab wing, not seeing Evangeline until a girl with bubblegum pink hair, walking in their direction, starts shifting through the crowd, her hair slowly melting into a darker royal blue. She nudges Jahi to prepare him for floating down, and once he was on the ground she jumps off the beam, slowing her fall enough to land safely. It had taken a few tries and a few broken bones to get that trick down - luckily quite a few people had healing related gifts, so the broken bones didn’t stick - but it was worth it for the dramatic effect.

“Annyeong, Mal, Jay. Chalchineyso?” Evangeline says sweetly, using their nicknames. Mal had hated them at first, preferring the sound of their full names, but got used to using them when Evangeline - or Evie, as she preferred - was around.

“Chinese?” Jay replies. This was a game they played every once in a while - Evie would greet them in a random language and they would have to guess which one it was.

“Close.” Evie says.

“Hmm, Korean?” Mal guesses.

“Yep!” Evie smiles widely, making Mal’s heart flutter. “Are we all set to go?”

“Mhm. We were just waiting on you, E.”

“Well, let’s go!” Evie says, and grabs their hands, leading them through the crowd, which parts for them like they are predators.

Which, they basically are. With Mal’s mother being head scientist in charge, and the rest of the parents part of the ruling class, Mal and her crew were basically untouchable. And while they had mellowed out a bit as they got older, they had been and still were hellions; everyone had learned to just let them do as they wished. Their parents basically encouraged the behavior, if not explicitly, because it made controlling the Isle that much easier.

They make a show of parading around the market for a short while, then lay low long enough for everyone to let their guards down, before sneaking through the kitchens and out the exit.

Outside of the bunker, it was quiet in the way that only nature is. Outside of the occasional ‘class trip’, none of the trio had had any reason to come out with permission. Mal was the only one with elemental powers, and she had full control of that power, plus it was actually safer for her to practice inside the bunker, which was metal and brick and had special rooms that the oxygen could be sucked out of if she lost control, as opposed to an, albeit damp, forest that could burn down. Still, fresh air is fresh air, and being away from the constant noise and crowd of the bunker was nice.

Jay goes straight to the closest tree and started climbing; Evie basks in the warm sunlight, head tilted to face the rays and arms out as if becoming a tree. Mal surveys the area until she finds a good vertical spot in immediate view of the exit and pulls out a can of spray paint. Covering her mouth with a bandana and warning Evie to stay upwind, Mal graffities her sigils all over the surface, claiming the spot as hers. Imagining how upset Uma would be when she discovered she wasn’t the first to sneak out here makes Mal laugh.

After she finishes, she joins Evie, who had laid out a blanket to lay on, in basking, taking in what little sunlight they could. They likely would have spent most of the afternoon there, if it wasn’t for what happened next:

Jay sits up from his lounge in the tree, peering off into the distance. He jumps down and runs off using his superspeed, returning with a stop in front of the girls seconds later.

“Mal, situation.” He says, barely slow enough for them to understand, “Four kids, at least one mutant, heading our way. One is injured, badly.”

“Shit. How far away?”

“Five minutes, maybe more with how slow they’re going.”

“Would you be able to run them over?” Mal says, suppressing the urge to make a joke about Jay’s perception of other people’s speed in favor of focusing on the incoming emergency. Running with a passenger was something Jay had been practising, but he had yet to move from practise dummies because their heads kept flying off from the whiplash.

Jay shakes his head.

“Right. Okay.” Mal’s mind whirls. Do they deal with this themselves or get an adult and get in trouble for leaving the bunker? Jay and Evie’s powers were more defense than offense, so Mal was their only safeguard if these kids turned out to be bad guys. But if they were mutants, then they had a spot here. And with one hurt, they would probably need help more than a fight. She came to a decision: “Okay - Jay, run inside and grab Ginny Gothel, she should be at the clinic but if she isn’t, check with the Tremaines. E, go grab a knife from the kitchen just in case. Looks like we’re the welcome party.”

“Already have one, M.” Evie says, pulling out a bedazzled pocket knife. At the amused look Mal gives her, she says, defensively, “What? It's pretty, I traded Harry a jacket for it.”

Jay zips inside while the girls laugh; by the time he returns, running at a far more human pace hand in hand with a dark haired girl, there are heavy footsteps and loud whispers coming from the edge of the woods, moving closer. Mal braces herself, just in case, but there is no need - three figures emerge, one furry but humanoid, one in a torn pink dress, and one small with shockingly white hair propped between them, clearly injured. Behind them is another figure, hidden by the shadows of the forest and peering out through the bushes. The furry one looks up as they enter the clearing, having been staring at their injured friend, and his face is so full of hope that Mal’s heart aches.

“Please,” he says, voice straining, “Help us.”

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! Been a while since I posted, but I'm back in action! (For Descendants, anyway. We'll see about other fandoms....)  
Some notes about this fic: I have a smidge of the next chapter written but I'm not 100% sure where this is going yet so it might be a while before the next part is up (I have the next part of the Cracked Jewels series currently being typed up for posting and that is going to be my main priority before I come back to this) so for now it will be marked as complete rather than as multichapter, just in case I end up never coming back to it (which is unlikely, because for most things even if it takes years they are always brewing in the back of my head until they are properly finished, I'm just a terrible project manager and I have ADHD so getting things finished is a Process). If you would like me to post a chapter that has everyones names and powers (because I gave a number of them proper full names besides just Mal, and made x-men style power profiles for them) let me know and I will post it as a bonus chapter of this!


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